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Ridley Scott is one of the most respected and powerful filmmakers working in Hollywood, and has been for decades. Meanwhile, Henry Cavill, the star of "Man of Steel" and "The Witcher," is currently one of the biggest actors in the business. One would imagine a team up between these two would result in something major. Well, that collaboration did happen back in 2006 and all it resulted in, sad to say, is a big flop that effectively killed the production company that backed it.

The movie in question is "Tristan & Isolde," a historical epic that was once a passion project for Scott. The director loves historical epics to this day, having recently directed the blockbuster "Gladiator II," a sequel to his 2000 Best Picture-winner. Good things can happen when Scott is in the director's chair. Unfortunately, Scott was merely a producer on this film.

Forty years later and Ridley Scott is still determined to make films about abnormal topics — or at least rebuff whatever studio advice is being doled out.

Scott said during the Director’s Guild of America’s “Director’s Cut” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that his first four films — “The Duellists,” “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” and “Legend” — were plagued by bad marketing tactics and were misunderstood by studios and audiences upon release.

“There’s only one film worked out of all of that lot,” Scott said, seemingly referring to the franchise-spurring “Alien,” “but they’re a pretty good first four movies. So I knew I’m on the right track.”

Scott even said that Pauline Kael’s review of his now-classic 1982 feature “Blade Runner” was indicative of how “wrong” audiences and critics were of his early films.

“To me, it almost walked in the column of industrial espionage,” Scott said of the infamous review,...

Ridley Scott revealed on the Director’s Guild of America’s “Director’s Cut” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that he was criticized by a studio executive early in his career for not making movies about “normal people.” Scott’s directing career kicked off with his Cannes-winning historical drama “The Duellists,” followed by “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and the fantasy adventure “Legend.”

“There’s only one film worked out of all of that lot, but they’re a pretty good first four movies. So I knew I’m on the right track,” Scott said. “But somebody at one of the studios said to me, ‘Why don’t you do a film about normal people?’ I went, ‘What the fuck does that mean?’ Because no one’s normal unless you’re totally boring, right?”

While “Alien” and “Blade Runner” are considered science-fiction classics, they did not necessarily start out their runs that way.

And so we go once more into the Colosseum, a place where bread and circuses reign supreme. A mad emperor, his mind slowly rotting, puts a once-mighty empire on the brink of total and utter collapse. The ruling class has gone from corruptible to corrupt. The masses are kept distracted by extravagant spectacles, their bloodlust constantly fed even when their bellies are empty. Power-hungry hustlers kiss up to the nation’s leader, in the hopes of gaining favor and status. Should he point his thumb down, however, they may find...

The man has many classics, but here’s my list of the top 7 you can stream right now.

With Ridley Scott’s sequel “Gladiator II” hitting theaters this weekend, it’s a great time to countdown his top movies on streaming. The director has been making movies for almost 50 years – since he released “The Duellists” in 1977. And he’s done it across multiple genres – from historical dramas to space epics to sci-fi dystopian futures, to road trip movies. So, here are the top 7 Ridley Scott movies you can watch on streaming right now.

Top 7 Ridley Scott movies on streaming - Ranked

No. 7: ‘Black Hawk Down’

No. 6: ‘American Gangster’

No. 5: ‘Thelma & Louise’

No. 4: ‘Blade Runner’

No. 3: ‘The Martian’

No. 2: ‘Gladiator’

No. 1: ‘Alien’

No. 7: ‘Black Hawk Down’ (2001) | Peacock

Coming in No. 7 is “Black Hawk Down” – Scott’s intense depiction of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu,...

An enterprising surveyor of genre and tone, Ridley Scott has earned the admiration of audiences and critics alike with a seemingly unending interest in exploring the outermost limits of his art form. The British director broke onto the scene in 1977 with “The Duellists,” a French period drama starring Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine set during the Napoleonic Wars. He returns to the early 19th century with Joaquin Phoenix as its namesake historical figure with the epic “Napoleon,” in theaters November 22.

“I first became aware of Ridley Scott with his film ‘The Duellists,'” Francis Ford Coppola recently said of Scott’s debut in an Instagram post. “I was impressed, and realizing he was my contemporary began following his work, which was prodigious to say the least. One after the other, different styles, themes — all ambitious and never stopping, absolutely great films like ‘Blade Runner,’ ‘Thelma & Louise,’ ‘Alien,’ and ‘Black Hawk Down....

“Gladiator II” (Paramount) is expected to gross over $60 million when it open this week in the U.S./Canada. If so, that will be a strong start for Ridley Scott’s 29th feature in his 45-year career.

With a budget reported to be somewhere around $250 million-$300 million, it will need all of that and more. While this may be his fourth film to cost over over $200 million (adjusting to current dollar value), “Gladiator II” appears to be the highest spend of Scott’s career.

It’s also the record expense for a director over 80. Paramount’s decision to entrust Scott clearly speaks to his past performances, particularly internationally.

We surveyed all 28 previous Scott features, calculating their grosses and budgets at 2024 values. And while a $60 million “Gladiator II” opening would be a record on paper, that only works if you don’t adjust his track record to current dollars and ticket prices.

Director Ridley Scott talks to us about Gladiator II, his favourite tennis documentary, baboons and an awful lot more.

Even a brief conversation with director Ridley Scott demonstrates how he’s continued to make feature films for almost 50 years. Decades on from his debut, 1977’s The Duellists, Scott remains as restlessly creative as ever – his latest film, sword-and-sandal sequel Gladiator II, arrives almost exactly a year after Napoleon. Both are historical epics requiring armies of extras and equally sizeable film crews; and yet, unfazed by their scale, Scott says he has at least three other movie projects mapped out and ready to go over the next three years.

Our conversation with Ridley Scott took place in September, and we’ve since learned that his plans have changed. When we spoke to him, he was working on a Bee Gees biopic; that project has now been delayed, and he’s reportedly...

Sir Ridley Scott didn’t make his first feature film (1977’s The Duellists) until he was 40 years old. The director, turning 87 at the end of this month, has not wasted any time making up for that late start with a remarkable array of landmark films including Blade Runner, Alien, Thelma and Louise, The Martian, Black Hawk Down and on and on.

Coming off the massive Napoleon, he jumped right into another epic project with a sequel 24 years after 2000’s Gladiator became his only Best Picture Oscar winner (though he lost Best Director to the double-nominated Steven Soderbergh that year). Scott generally has resisted going the sequel route to his films, with his 2012 Prometheus and 2017 Alien: Covenant proving the exceptions, though those two films completing his so-called Alien trilogy came respectively 33 years and 38 years after his much-imitated 1979 hit, Alien. In between he left it to others including James Cameron to take...

Director Ridley Scott told Deadline in 2023 that he’d been offered to direct superhero movies, but that it wasn’t for him, after telling them in 2021 that modern superhero movies are “no fucking good” and “boring as shit.” He said he’d already directed at least 3 superheroes: Ellen Ripley in Alien, Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, and Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator. “The difference is,” Scott said, “the f*cking stories are better.”

The case can certainly be made that Ridley Scott has brought some of the best stories to screen that we’ve ever seen, and Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator are among them, but what about his more modern fare? Are the stories for House of Gucci, The Last Duel, and Napoleon “better”? Ridley Scott hasn’t had a movie achieve both critical and commercial success since 2015’s The Martian, which begs the question: Wtf happened to Ridley Scott?...

Plot: “Napoleon: The Director’s Cut” stars Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor and military leader. The film is a fresh and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby. The director’s cut delves deeper into Josephine’s origin story and features more extravagant costumes, new larger-than-life sets, and the previously unreleased Battle of Marengo scene. The audience is also given more details about Napoleon’s demise, from his attempted assassination to his failed invasion of Russia.

Review: When Ridley Scott’s Napoleon debuted in 2023, it received a less than enthusiastic welcome. While our own Chris Bumbray gave the film a positive score, he was the exception to the rule. The majority of critics and audiences found the film to be ambitious.

If you are a horror fanatic, there is no way you haven’t watched Ridley Scott’s 1979 epic ‘Alien‘. The xenomorph-laden extraterrestrial terror solidified the creepy space element in sci-fi movies that was relatively new at the time. And Ridley Scott aced it with perfection.

Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Ridley Scott’s Alien | Credits: 20th Century Fox

The movie would go on to birth a wildly-loved franchise, with multiple movies under its banner. However, there was once a time when no director would even look at it, and was frequently passed on.

Ridley Scott recalls reading the Alien script for the first time

Back in the 1970s, Ridley Scott‘s career was just beginning to take flight. The young filmmaker had just won the Best First Work for his feature The Duellists at Cannes. However, his competitiveness took over his joy when he watched George Lucas‘ Star Wars.

Sigourney...

Who would’ve thought that a career spanning six decades could be filled with so many extraterrestrials, dystopian futures, and historical epics? Well, that’s the case with Ridley Scott, one of cinema’s greatest visual storytellers and a true master of tone & genre. Thus, it’s no wonder he has three Academy Award nominations for Best Director under his belt and remains a hot topic among film buffs.

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher & Harrison Ford in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope | Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd

When Scott and Fede Álvarez were recently asked by Letterboxd to name their four favorite movies, the former’s list included George Lucas’ masterpiece Star Wars. And here’s a juicy tidbit: The Duellists director was so awestruck by Star Wars that it left him starry-eyed for three months, during which he ditched his project (at the time) and gifted us the masterpiece Alien.

Sony Pictures has debuted the brand new trailer for Afraid, an upcoming sci-fi horror film from Academy Award-nominated writer/director Chris Weitz (Operation Finale; About a Boy; American Pie) that introduces a whole new kind of terror to the world with Aia, who is basically a Siri-like family assistant that takes her job way, way too seriously.

The film's synopsis reveals, "Curtis (John Cho) and his family are selected to test a revolutionary new home device: a digital family assistant called Aia. Taking smart home to the next level, once the unit and all its sensors and cameras are installed in their home, Aia seems able to do it all. She learns the family's behaviors and begins to anticipate their needs. And she can make sure nothing – and no one – gets in her family’s way."

The cast features John Cho (Star Trek; Searching; Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle...

Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi horror film, which introduced cinema lovers to iconic characters like Ellen Ripley, Alien is celebrating its 45 years. Widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time, Alien was a revolutionary project whose impact on the horror genre remains significant. However, the story of the extraterritorial creature hunting down the spacecraft crew originated from a failed attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune series.

A still from Alien | Credit: 20th Century Fox

Chilean-French filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky had meticulously planned to adapt the sci-fi novels, creating a screenplay and thousands of sketches to bring his vision of the desert planet Arrakis to life. Although this project fell apart, it ultimately inspired Scott’s 1979 Oscar-winning masterpiece.

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Failed Attempt Adapting Dune

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune film series has captivated movie lovers, especially with the 2024 sequel that continues Paul Atreides’ journey to the southern...

Reactions from an early test screening reveal that Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 is 160 minutes long, and suggest that it’s thankfully rather good.

A difficult production reportedly led Gladiator 2's budget to balloon to as much as $310m – a figure that Paramount has since disputed. All the same, there’s a lot riding on Ridley Scott’s expensive, highly-anticipated sequel to his own 2000 historical epic – we’ve been particularly looking forward to it since we learned that Paul Mescal will at some point fight a pack of baboons. More on that shortly.

Ahead of its release towards the end of the year, Gladiator 2 has been test-screened to a select audience in Las Vegas. That’s according to World of Reel’s Jordan Ruimy, who’s rather good at getting the inside word on early screenings such as this.

The gossip from this particular preview is that the...

Few films have made as lasting an impact as Ridley Scott’s Gladiator in the world of cinematic epics. Excitement is building as news of its long-awaited sequel spreads among fans of classic action flicks. The 86-year-old recently finished filming the follow-up to his blockbuster hit, Gladiator 2.

Ridley Scott (Credit: Scified)

Executives who’ve seen the footage are reportedly blown away, hinting at a potential revival of the genre’s heyday. Could Gladiator 2 mark the return of historical revenge thrillers’ golden era? With its thrilling action and revenge-driven plot, it seems poised to captivate a new generation of moviegoers and bring back the magic of old-school cinema.

SUGGESTED5 Movies and TV Shows of Fantastic Four Cast Joseph Quinn That Will Convince You He Will Nail Johnny Storm Executives Are Reportedly Amazed By Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 Footage

Executives are buzzing about Ridley Scott’s latest footage for Gladiator 2,...

Deadline reports that Ridley Scott is in negotiations to direct a movie about the Bee Gees, the iconic musical group formed by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.

Ridley Scott recently wrapped production on the Gladiator sequel, and in true Ridley Scott fashion, he’s already looking for another project. I wish I had half his energy. Should Scott close the deal to helm the Bee Gees movie for Paramount Pictures, he would also produce through his Scott Free banner along with Michael Pruss. John Logan (Alien: Covenant) has penned the script for the project.

Related Alien: Romulus star Isabela Merced promises a scene so disgusting, viewers will have to look away

At first glance, a movie about the Bee Gees may not seem like something that screams Ridley Scott, but the project would actually be a full-circle moment for the director. Back when he was getting started, Scott had...

Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” was revered by the British critics and scored well at the European box office, but it found a muted stateside response. (The Metascore is 64 — respectable but not stellar.) During the awards race (ballots are due January 16 at 5 Pm Pt), the movie scored well with crafts — but the Golden Globes nominated Joaquin Phoenix for “Beau is Afraid,” not “Napoleon.”

All of this leaves the 86-year-old filmmaker waiting a while longer to return to the Best Director circle; his fourth nomination was in 2016 for “The Martian.” He caught up with us on Zoom at his vacation home in Provence before he wraps the last few weeks of post production on “Gladiator 2,” which will be released Thanksgiving weekend. He likes to skirt around some questions.

Anne Thompson: You’ve got to finish “Gladiator 2?”

Ridley Scott: This house belongs to a general Robert of Napoleon’s army. I...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

I’m not much for introductions, but I have a confession to make; a difficult one, and maybe disastrous to my career prospects in the cat-eat-cat land of the media commentariat. But to anyone who knows me, the secret is already out: I am not very cool. I don’t live in a major urban center or have regular access to any hot arthouse theaters; I don’t travel the festival circuit and bump shoulders with the film critics you know and love. I don’t keep track of what’s new on Netflix or Prime or wherever. I don’t even get out much, really, except to walk my dog. When sleepy dark December rolls into town each year, most often I’ve barely seen more...

Napoleon is an epic war drama film directed by the legendary director Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by David Scarpa. The biographical film follows the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, as he rises from the status of a young army officer to becoming an emperor. The film also focuses on his volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine. Napoleon stars Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role of Napoleon Bonaparte with Vanessa Kirby, Edouard Philipponnat, Youssef Kerkour, Matthew Needham, Cormac Hyde-Corrin, and Anna Mawn starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the war drama film here are some similar movies you could watch next.

The King (Netflix) Credit – Netflix

Synopsis: Hal (Timothée Chalamet), wayward prince and reluctant heir to the English throne, has turned his back on royal life and is living among the people. But when his tyrannical father dies, Hal is crowned King Henry V and is forced to embrace...

Reviewing House Of Gucci, I made a comparison between it, The Last Duel and Shakespeare's plays. After Napoleon, its closing credits words "inspired by actual events," I find those similarities again, not least with the vexed question of historical accuracy. Those include, flag fans, the vexillogical, but there are plenty of other issues that force one to ask questions about standards.

Ridley Scott is no stranger to historical dramas, period films. Napoleon makes it a dozen I think, returning him to the era of his debut feature The Duellists. The debts that owes to Kubrick are numerous, and the story of the Corsican Emperor of France is one that the auteur perfectionist never got to screen himself. Kubrick's Napoleon is one of those unmade projects that has attracted devotees in potentia, as with Jodorowsky's Dune. Scott's Napoleon seems to share epic intent but, even with the amount of canvas,...

While there is generally some competition between directors — even those in their 80s — it’s still pretty cool when one from that generation praises another. And that’s just what Francis Ford Coppola has for Ridley Scott: endless praise, even saying knighthood just isn’t enough for Scott. This comes fresh off of Scott’s Napoleon posting strong-than-expected numbers over the holiday weekend, even outgrossing Disney’s much-hyped Wish.

Posting on Instagram (something we’ll never quite get used to), Coppola remembered when he first got wind of Ridley Scott and what his subsequent work means. “I first became aware of Ridley Scott with his film The Duellists. I was impressed, and realizing he was my contemporary began following his work, which was prodigious to say the least. One after the other, different styles, themes – all ambitious and never stopping, absolutely great films,” before citing everything from Alien to Black Hawk Down.

Clockwise from bottom left: Julie & Julia (Photo: Columbia Pictures); Chef (Photo: Open Road Films); Hook (Photo: TriStar Pictures); Eat Drink Man Woman (Photo:vThe Samuel Goldwyn Company); Parallel Mothers (Photo: Sony Pictures Classics); Tampopo (Photo: Film Forum) Graphic: Libby McGuire Every Ridley Scott movie ranked, including NapoleonIt’s been nearly...

Graphic: Karl Gustafson, The A.V. Club, Libby McGuire, Image: Jason McDonald/Netflix, The A.V. Club, Photo: Apple TV+, 20th Century Fox, Disney, Lionsgate, Terry Camilleri, Screenshot: Bill & Ted’s Excellent AdventureEvery Ridley Scott movie ranked, including NapoleonClockwise from left: Alien (Hulton Archive/Getty Images), Thelma And Louise (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images...

Ridley Scott’s career is marked first and foremost by its sheer prolificness. There are very few directors of any age who work frequently enough to have two films coming out the same year. Scott’s done it three times in 2001, 2017, and 2021; and those later two times were when he was past the age of 80.

Since he made his debut with the swashbuckling period drama “The Duellists” in 1977, Scott has been a steady, constant presence at the cinema. His longest break has been two four-year gaps between releases — “1492: Conquest for Paradise” and “White Squall” from 1992 to 1996 and “The Martian” and “All the Money in the World” and “The Last Duel” from 2017 to 2021, the latter gap widened by the pandemic. More frequently, Scott only goes two or even just one year before dropping a new film, resulting in an impressively robust 28 filmography.

What’s even more notable about Scott’s...

Top: Napoleon (Gaumont), Middle: Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Orion Pictures), Bottom: Napoleon Bunny-Part (Warner Bros. Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 21, 1821, but the iconic French emperor has lived on (and on and on) in numerous movies and television shows. Esteemed director Ridley Scott, who...

Ridley Scott has staged some incredible scenes in his 45+-year career: the duel in his debut The Duellists, the opening shot of Blade Runner, Maximus’ reveal in Gladiator…But the one that stands above all others just might be the chestburster scene from 1979’s Alien, a scene so unique in all of cinema that not even Stanley Kubrick could figure out how it was accomplished.

As Ridley Scott told Deadline, “I talked to Stanley twice. First time, I’d just done Alien, and the office says, Stanley Kubrick is calling. I said, holy f*ck. He says, hi there. Listen, I just watched your movie. I need to ask you a question and I’ll get straight to it. How do you get that thing coming out of his goddamn chest? He said, it scared the sh*t out of me. That was the first exchange. I said, well, what I did,...

Ridley Scott‘s wildly ambitious “Napoleon” might be the director’s last word on its subject, but it’s not the first time he tackled both the glory and the absurdity of the Napoleonic era. One could say that “Napoleon” has been 46 years in the making, since Scott first began thinking about and researching the French emperor during the making of his debut feature, “The Duellists,” in 1977. That film tells the story of two officers (Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel) in Napoleon’s army who engage in an obsessive ritual of duels that goes on for so long that they ultimately forget what even started the grievance; in its setting, visual style, and themes, it’s an exceptionally well-realized template for most of the Ridley Scott epics that would follow — and he shot this historical extravaganza on a budget of around $800,000.

By the time Scott made “The Duellists,” he had...

Clockwise from left: Alien (Hulton Archive/Getty Images), Thelma And Louise (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images), Blade Runner (Warner Bros./Archive Photos/Getty Images), Gladiator (Universal/Getty Images) Graphic: Karl Gustafson It’s been nearly five decades since Ridley Scott’s first feature film, The Duellists, hit theaters, and now, even well into his 80s,...

Clockwise from left: Alien (Hulton Archive/Getty Images), Thelma And Louise (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images), Blade Runner (Warner Bros./Archive Photos/Getty Images), Gladiator (Universal/Getty Images)Graphic: Karl Gustafson

It’s been nearly five decades since Ridley Scott’s first feature film, The Duellists, hit theaters, and now, even well into his 80s,...

Charlie Chaplin once allegedly said, "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot." That observation holds even more truth when "life" is swapped for "history"; after all, when looking back over humanity's seemingly never-ending tally of blunders, foolish short-sightedness, lazy handwaving, backpedaling, hatefulness, obfuscation, crimes of passion and other mean-spirited and/or boneheaded screw-ups that have resulted, snowball effect-like, in the messed up world we are all doomed to live in today ... well, you're either crying or laughing.

Judging by the films he's made over his stunningly prolific 46-year directing career, Ridley Scott appears to have chosen laughter. That's not to say he's a comedian, mind you; only real sickos would be likely to throw on "Blade Runner" or "The Counselor" in order to relax and have a chill time. Yet Scott's misanthropic humor is undeniably present in everything from the Lovecraftian coldness of "Alien...

The end-of-the-year awards contenders naturally include several biographical films, usually, they’re intimate tales of triumph and tragedy, such as Nyad and the upcoming Maestro. This holiday offering has that crossed with another genre, namely that it’s also a big sweeping historical epic. Fitting, since its subject made a huge impact on the entire world two centuries ago. In the director’s chair is a filmmaker known for such big, broad sagas, though he’s done several smaller dramas. And he’s comfortable setting his films in the far distant past and the far distant future. Here he’s flexing his considerable skills as he reunites with a former acting collaborator to tell the spectacular story of Napoleon.

It doesn’t begin with the title subject’s childhood, instead taking us right into France’s “Reign of Terror”, just in time for a royal appointment with “the blade”. Soon after,...

“All art is autobiographical,” Federico Fellini once said. “The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” No one would accuse Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s two-and-a-half-hour epic (that’s the theatrical cut’s running time, mind you; there’s a four-hour version waiting in the wings as well) about the French dictator’s rise and fall, of being thinly veiled autofiction in period dress. You sure as hell wouldn’t call it a pearl, either. Starting with the French revolution and ending with Monsieur Bonaparte’s no-bang-all-whimper exit from this mortal coil,...

Numerous times in Napoleon, the mist settles over wintry landscapes, delicately summoning visual echoes of The Duellists, the 1977 debut feature set during the same period that put Ridley Scott on the map. Then there are muscular, large-scale scenes of warfare more characteristic of the veteran director’s later work, notably the Battle of Austerlitz, where cannon fire from Bonaparte’s army sends Austrian and Russian troops plunging to icy deaths in a frozen lake, its water stained with blood. But for all its brawn and atmosphere and robustly choreographed combat, this is a distended historical tapestry too sprawling to remain compelling, particularly when its focus veers away from the central couple.

Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in the title role is as eccentric as any the mercurial actor has given, even if his tics don’t always seem entirely grounded in character. But it’s when he’s onscreen with Vanessa Kirby as Josephine,...

Exclusive: Ridley Scott unveils Napoleon today at a lavish world premiere in the 2,500-seat Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris. He is 85 but seems ageless, and Scott is already plotting to quickly resume production on Gladiator, the second installment of his film that won five Oscars including Best Picture. He’s got 90 minutes of footage, fully edited, and needs that much more. He expects to be shooting within two weeks, and he’s already got his next movie slated for around March. Though he is keeping the details to himself, he acknowledged it’s period, with a script like perfectly distilled liquor, and two stars ready to join him in what he said is a bucket list project for him.

It’s tough to keep up with Scott, the master visualist who is most comfortable making a movie, or dreaming up the next one. Interviewing Sir Ridley is a bucket list item for any journalist,...

It's easy to take for granted the weirdness and shocking nature of the extraterrestrial's lifecycle in Ridley Scott's seminal 1979 horror film "Alien."

In "Alien," John Hurt plays Kane, a crew member of the futuristic space tug Nostromo who finds an outsize, leathery egg while exploring a mysterious alien vessel. The egg opens, and a strange monster -- part lobster, part bladder -- leaps out and grabs his face. He immediately goes comatose. Later, it is discovered that the monster, while still attached to his face, has inserted an unsettling biological tube down his throat. Kane's crewmates are unable to remove the monster from his face; when they pull on it, it begins to strangle Kane with its tail, and when they cut it, it bleeds acid that can eat through metal.

After a spell, the monster drops off Kane's face of its own volition and dies. What happened? It's...

Napoleon director-producer Ridley Scott was on stage at Deadline’s Contenders London event to discuss the journey behind his latest epic and why he chose Joaquin Phoenix to portray the iconic Emperor.

Speaking about casting Oscar winner Phoenix, who he had previously worked with on Gladiator [in which Phoenix played another Emperor], filmmaking legend Scott told the audience that he had always viewed Phoenix’s character in that movie as “the most sympathetic character in Gladiator, being the product of such a neglectful father.”

He continued: “I was blown away by his outrageous film Joker. I didn’t like the way it celebrated violence but Joaquin was remarkable. I thought he’d be an amazing asset to Napoleon, [not only creatively] also in a commercial sense. There were only two actors I had in mind for the role. I won’t mention the other one.”

Apple has partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment for a November 22 worldwide theatrical release launch for Napoleon,...

Ray Price, the respected indie film innovator who served as president of American Zoetrope and First Look Pictures and as a marketing and distribution executive for companies including Landmark Theatres and Trimark Pictures, has died. He was 75.

Price died Sunday at Whittier Hospital Medical Center from heart failure after a long battle with cancer, his longtime partner, Meg Madison, said.

Throughout his career, Price displayed an encyclopedic knowledge of film, mentored generations of executives and leaned toward the outrageous in the ways he lured audiences to sample challenging movies.

Along the way, he championed filmmakers including Carl Franklin (1992’s One False Move), Allison Anders (1992’s Gas Food Lodging), Tran Anh Hung (1993’s The Scent of Green Papaya), Gurinder Chadha (1993’s Bhaji on the Beach) and John Sayles (1994’s The Secret of Roan Inish).

“Ray, while being a defiantly singular individual, was also emblematic of a bygone age of independent film,...

Joaquin Phoenix’s Napoleon Bonaparte can’t fail in the trailer for Ridley Scott’s Napoleon. The leader’s relentless sequence of wins brought him the highest praise as a military commander, which eventually carried him straight to the throne as the Emperor of the French in 1804. But alongside all those successes, he was also stockpiling the chips on his shoulder. “I’m the first to admit when I make a mistake,” he states in the clip. “I simply never do.”

In theaters Nov. 22, Napoleon captures the ego and arrogance...

As a filmmaker, Ridley Scott has always been somewhat reticent to embrace the urgency of the contemporary moment. Though he’s never less than competent in terms of form and as a director of actors, Scott remains to this day a genre-driven stylist and a lover of the physical design, cultural symbols, and lingo that characterize a specific era. Scott’s best films called for immense design work, the crafting of vehicles and creatures, and the imagining of a culture far removed from our current standings; Gladiator and The Duellists bloomed largely due to exhaustive detailing and accuracy of historical costume design, if not historical events exactly.

Life in the present boxes Scott in creatively, as he’s in a way required to show us a world we will recognize as the same one that we will see when we exit the theater. That world doesn’t bore Scott necessarily,...

We’ve been waiting to hear of a release date for director Ridley Scott‘s latest historical epic Napoleon, which stars Joker Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as the title character, the French emperor and military leader. Now we know the release date. The project is an Apple Original, but it’s also an awards season contender, so it’s no surprise to hear that it’s going to be getting a theatrical release before it ends up on Apple TV+. Apple Original Films has announced that they’re teaming up with Sony Pictures Entertainment to bring Napoleon to theatres on Wednesday, November 22nd.

Directed by Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa, Napoleon is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The...

If you are a first-time filmmaker keen to have a long career in the motion picture industry, write a part for Harvey Keitel and get it to him Asap.

Over his magnificent 55-year career, Keitel has been a good luck charm for some of the greatest directors in the industry. His auspicious streak kicked off with his very first leading role in Martin Scorsese's very first feature film, "Who's That Knocking at My Door." Scorsese's done fairly well for himself. So had Ridley Scott, who began his big-screen career by directing Keitel in 1977's "The Duelists." A year later, Keitel hooked up with "Taxi Driver" screenwriter Paul Schrader for "Blue Collar." This was evidently a nightmare production for the overwhelmed Schrader, but the raves, many of which singled out Keitel's performance, earned the scribe a reputation as an actor's director. Also in 1978, Keitel dazzled as a prodigious pianist...

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When it comes to action, Vikings: Valhalla has some big tunics to fill. Its predecessor, Vikings, delivered many thrilling sword and axe skirmishes worthy of these legendary warriors. The new series reassembles the same stunt team and prop makers in hopes of capturing even more honor and glory for the noble Norsemen. Fighting through gore and muck is the Viking way, and this crew strives to engage us viscerally with the ferocious spectacle of medieval war. And Vikings: Valhalla doesn’t pull any punches. In just the fourth episode, the stunt team delivers an epic siege on London Bridge, the magnitude of which is on the level of the finale battle in most other sword-swinging series.

“Mud and blood is definitely a strong theme with us,” admits Richard Ryan, Stunt Coordinator for Vikings and Vikings: Valhalla. The franchise has a reputation for gritty brutal...

The career of director Steven Spielberg has practically defined modern blockbusters, but he’s also been able to craft more personal films as well. Let’s rank Spielberg’s entire filmography from worst to best in a new photo gallery of his 32 theatrical features.

Spielberg’s reputation as a master entertainer came with the release of “Jaws,” his 1975 shark attack thriller. Made when he was just 29 years old, the film set box office records and made the summer safe for blockbusters again. Such following films as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) cemented Spielberg’s ability to create spectacular amusements that brought audiences to their feet.

SEEOscar Best Picture Gallery: History of Every Academy Award-Winning Movie

He later moved into serious filmmaking with “The Color Purple” (1985), which paved the way for his 1993 Holocaust drama “Schindler’s List” (1993). That film swept the Academy Awards,...

Instant hits: Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” and Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel,” both midweek additions for home viewing, have already hit number one on their first day in release, care of the two charts that most quickly gauge audience response. Though the films — one a Netflix heavy-hitter hot off a limited theatrical run, the other a Disney holdover that fared poorly in its theatrical-only release — are totally separate cases, each is significant. And they also share a surprising element that suggests why they had instant success.

Netflix has produced a steady supply of awards-pursuing titles for several years now. But only a handful — Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” is the rare case — have ever reached the #1 spot on the streamer’s own daily movie chart. Most of them have minimal appearances. Last year, David Fincher’s “Mank,” despite its later multiple Oscar nominations, showed up...

A monstrous truck pursues a motorist in the film-maker’s seat-edge 1971 feature-length debut that hinted at greatness to come

It takes less than a minute of watching Duel, Steven Spielberg’s feature-length debut, to realize you’re in the hands of a master director. And it takes even less time than that to suspect as much, because the opening shots alone, a Pov from a camera attached to the front bumper of a red Plymouth Valiant, have an unsettling visceral jolt to them, despite the mundane action of the car pulling out of a suburban driveway and heading on its way. The bumper’s-eye-view would be a major component of Walter Hill’s superb 1978 thriller The Driver. Spielberg beat it by seven years.

There are some important asterisks here. Duel was not Spielberg’s first time behind the camera by any means. He’d been unusually precocious as a child and young adult,...

A scene from the WWI drama The War Below. Courtesy of Virtual

When you hear WWI, trenches and trench warfare often spring to mind. The War Below is based on a true story about World War I but instead of trenches, it is about some clever, skilled tunnelers seeking to sabotage German forces.

World War I, then called the Great War, and the “War to End All Wars,” was a earth-shattering conflict, changing the nature of warfare, remaking the political and physical landscape, and decimating a generation of young men. The War Below is based on the true story of a group of British sewer tunnelers from Yorkshire, nicknamed the “clay-kickers,” who were brought in by “Hellfire Jack” Col. John Norton-Griffiths to help break the stalemate with the German forces in the battle of Messines in 1917. The result of their near-miraculous efforts was a massive explosion under the enemy line,...

“The truth does not matter, there is only the power of men.”

Matt Damon and Jodie Comer seen on set of the Last Duel in Ireland. 30 Sep 2020 Pictured: Matt Damon and Jodie Cromer. Photo credit: Mega TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342

20th Century Studios’ The Last Duel Arrives on Digital November 30 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD December 14

20th Century Studios’ historical epic, The Last Duel, unravels the true story about France’s last sanctioned duel. Directed by the critically acclaimed Ridley Scott, the film stars Jodie Comer and Adam Driver as well as Academy Award® winners Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Certified-Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, The Last Duel will be available on Digital November 30 and on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD December 14.

Jodie Comer is spellbinding in this tale of betrayal and vengeance set in 14th century France from visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott. Based on actual events, the film stars...

Cinema Napa Valley announced the lineup of filmmaker tributes taking place virtually at this year’s Napa Valley Film Festival from Nov. 10-14. Video tributes will play following screenings of the honorees’ work and include conversations with them.

This year, in addition to the annual Napa Valley Filmmaker Awards, the festival will debut a new series of Culinary Cinema Awards honoring achievements in storytelling devoted to food, wine, and spirits. Across both categories, the 2021 honorees include Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Harvey Keitel, Marlee Matlin, Odessa Young, David Gelb, Phil Rosenthal and Jon Taffer. Each honoree will be presented with a special bottle of wine from a festival sponsor.

“Our tributes highlight those that share an unabashed passion for cinema in many forms throughout their careers,” said Cinema Napa Valley chairman Rick Garber. “We recognize and acknowledge not only their personal accomplishments and critical thinking, but also their career achievements. We embrace their artistic vision,...